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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Daily Thought: Becoming Fluent In Christian Behavior

"Of course, the Christian ideal is that we should get to the point, as with a language, where we don't need to think about it at all. If you are a native speaker of, say, Swahili, and want to learn Chinese, your aim is to be able to listen and speak in Chinese without ever thinking of grammar. To the extent that you are still racking your brains about which words to use and how to form sentences, you are not yet fluent. But, as you practise, the rules will steadily become, as we say, 'second nature.' That is the aim with learning the new language of Christian behavior." ~ N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, p. 131

2 comments:

You're spot on, bro, we as Christians, we as Believers in the God of Jacob, the God of Abraham, the God of Adam, the God of Moses, should speak to non-believers and the lost in a tone and language where it is a familiar. For instance, when speaking to a person who's either a knowledge layman when it comes to science or a person in the field; we, as Christians, should use their language to get our point across. Have you heard of Dr. William Lane Craig? This man is brilliant.

Thanks for commenting Joshua. I am a reader and a listener of Dr. Craig and enjoy his work too.

What N. T. Wright is saying in this quote is that in our behavior we have to become fluent in following Jesus so it is like second nature, we don't give it a thought, we just do the right thing. That is the goal of someone learning a language, not to have to think about what they are saying, but to speak or write without having to fumble around with words or grammar. It is second nature to them.